Recruiting Tool for Knockout Candidate Presentations (ComF5)

Good morning, Fellow Recruiters - as of late, I've seen more and more 3rd-Party Recruiters (and Contract, as well as Internal Recruiters as well) really trying to up their game with the usage of the Social Web and quicker, more effective, more efficient conversation, etc. These are all great things and the needle is definitely moving forward.

At the same time, however, I worry that the majority of us are focusing more and more and more on Candidate Identification and Attraction that we've forgotten about the very basic importance of Candidate Presentation to our Clients. It's as if the more technology blossoms, the farther we can get away from the fundamentals in this line of work. I've only been Recruiting 6 years, but I can honestly say that my billings went up tremendously when I realized 2 things:

1. A Great Recruiter Asks Great Questions (both of their Clients and Candidates). There are tons of Trainers out there that can help with this (Danny Cahill, Peter Lefkowitz, Doug Beabout, Scott Love, etc.) I probably spend at least $1k a year taking advantage of their training so I can stay sharp.

2. A Great Recruiter Creates Knock-out Candidate Presentations. Seriously, this is the one area that I don't see Recruiters really doing a super job. It's like we kill ourselves to find and recruit top-tier Candidates, and we're so excited to submit them that when we do, it's a resume and a short, hard-hitting paragraph explaining why they're a solution and a fit.

The result is much of the same - it's a gamble. Put it like this: I can take 100 Recruiters and give them all the very same Candidate. I'd estimate 5 of the 100 Recruiters will move the Candidate forward, despite the fact that they all have the same Candidate. Why is that? Because it all comes down to how we present our Candidates as a solution and a fit.

Here's where I'm going with this -- starting late last year, I started using an integrated marketing platform that allows for me to create video presentations of my Candidates to Clients. No, it's not an ATS - the market already has enough of those. So what's happened here is that I've moved beyond paper . . . and my submission-to-sendout ratio has nearly doubled in effectiveness. I'm impressed by this because most Recruiters I know are seeing the opposite happen (i.e. more submissions, less sendouts). Further, I've promoted to the Candidate market that they understand how important it is to find a Recruiter that can present them powerfully. As a result, I have more Candidates seeking me out (once I show them that their presentation is password protected, they're game).

The ComF5 platform is only $40/mth and includes live broadcasting (and archived presentations that can be viewed on-demand, like a Candidate presentation), landing pages and forms for marketing and info capture, autoresponders for new Client prospecting (and industry-related newsletters for Candidate attraction), email campaigns that incorporate video if you want, video email (or audio email), etc. If you haven't seen how cool a video email is, drop me a note with your email address and I'll shoot you one off in seconds (using my webcam). When a Client asks why you charge 25% instead of the standard 20%, show them how you use this platform - when I started doing this, resistance was way easier to overcome increased fees.

If you'd like a quick overview of what I'm talking about (along with a hypothetical candidate presentation), you can find it here.

For a more generic overview of everything the platform can do, hope on over to ComF5's home site. I'm working on some Recruiter-specific presentations, but this might wet your palette as to what is possible with the platform.

P.S. As for pricing, it's $40/mth and allows for 5k contacts to be imported. If you'd like to recommend it to other Recruiters or Small Biz Owners, it's $100/mth, but includes a residual cashflow component (i.e. monthly commissions).

I'd love to connect with you about it. Feel free to give me a ring or drop me a line here on RBC:

This is an interesting concept. From friends that are being contacted and asked to do the video presentation - they are very very resistant. They feel that this will do most of them a disservice - in that the client will first evaluate them on appearance, communication and presentation skills - instead of on their work skills.

I also wonder, does this give the client an easier way to screen out for age, race, etc. Just wonder -

Yeah it might really be a good idea for the stars - but beyone that - not sure.

Slouch, my fault - I must have mislinked the last one by accident. I don't have the resources, knowledge, or desire to build my own product from the ground up, and even if I did, I'd leave development to the Pros :) In that regard, yes, I resell ComF5 (as well as other products that are more Enterprise-specific than Recruiter-specific.) The main benefit to this relationship is that I personally support whatever Recruiter uses it - this beats using the Knowledgebase, although there are some super how-to videos linked to the Support tab.
In regards to ComF5, if there doesn't look to be value for anyone as a Recruiter, I say don't do it. However, if you're looking for a way to differentiate your presentations and justify increased fees, give it a shot.

Derek, I'm with you that using this type of video platform could be good for some Candidates and bad for others. Personally, I don't present all Candidates on video, so in that case I'll simply create a video of myself walking through a Candidate's background and how they may provide a solution to the Client's challenges. The analytics piece lets me see when the video was opened and if the Hiring Manager watched it to the end. This may not work for all, but what I've personally noticed is that my sendout-to-submission ratio has went up and Hiring Managers are more eager to see an email from you (as opposed to the typical resume and short bullet-list email.)